New England Patriots Draft: Expect New England To Trade One of Its Picks

The New England Patriots are set up to have an amazing draft class this year, as they own three of the top 33 picks for 2011. 

As everyone knows about the very unfortunate possible of a delayed, or even nonexistence of an NFL season for 2011, New England's head coach Bill Belichick might feel obligated to trade of those picks. 

Not only with the risk of a lockout, money is major factor of likely trading out of one of their top three picks. 

One of the popular topics looming around the NFL and NFLPA is a possible salary cap or scale being placed on NFL rookies—they're getting way too much guaranteed money. 

Across the league, Belichick and the New England Patriots are well known for their financial philosophies and outlooks on player's contracts. Some might say New England is "stingy" or that they're just smart. 

New England have 17th, 28th, and 33rd overall in this year's draft.

Notably, No. 17 is rather high, and Belichick might feel it'd be a better idea trading the pick. However, it all matters who's on Belichick's big draft board, and how he's ranking players. With that being said with No. 17, same can be said for No. 28. 

No. 33, on the other hand, is an extremely valuable pick: it is the first pick of the second round, and the first pick of the second day—meaning, New England will have all night and most of the next day to decide who they will select at No. 33. 

New England can use their pick to their advantage in so many ways. 

One way could be Belichick using this pick is as a trading piece. New England could very will drive up the price for the pick by dangling it in front of teams later on, which will cause teams directly behind New England to move up to snag the player that they're targeting. 

But lastly, and more importantly, realize that this is Belichick and the New England Patriots—a team who can't stay still on draft day. They trade up and down so many times, that they might hold an NFL record for trades on draft day. 

It's safe to expect that the Patriots will move one of their top three picks, and it could be for a plethora of reasons.

NOTE: This article was first seen at PatriotsPlus.net. Be sure to follow Tony Santorsa on Twitter @  TonySantorsa.